Marketing, Branding and Promotion for Metal Clay Teachers and Jewelers
On this page you'll find information about marketing and branding your metal clay business. You'll also find useful information about selling at art and craft fairs. All links open in a new window.
Art Fair Source Book
The Definitive Guide to the Best Juried Art and Craft Fairs in the United States. This site also includes a Virtual Jury Service. This service allows you to submit your work and have an experienced juror evaluate it and give you feedback. They say, "We've employed a panel of 12 experienced jurors who are ready to give you a detailed evaluation of your jury images, along with specific recommendations on how you can increase your chances of success with your very next application." The service isn't free but if you're serious about getting your work into juried shows, this may be a very good investment.
Art Jewelry Magazine - Branding
This brief but informative article focusses on what to do, and not to do, when considering your branding.
Art Jewelry Magazine - Market your Jewelry Online Article
Great little article about online marketing. Well worth reading.
Art Jewelry Magazine - Top Ten Tips for Selling Jewelry on Ebay
Short but packed with fabulous information, if you intend to sell on Ebay, start here. Also includes a section with tips on blogging.
Balancing Art and Business
What's the right mix of art and business for you? Published on the Jewelry Artist/Lapidary Journal website.
Blogging for Business Marketing Kit
This free marketing kit from Hubspot has videos and an ebook to help you develop a marketing plan using your business blog.
Business Tips for the Traveling Crafter
When you’re traveling, it might seem like the easiest thing in the world to bring home objects to resell — but navigating the world of importing can be tricky. Published on the Jewelry Artist/Lapidary Journal website.
Constant Contact
Email marketing and newsletter solutions. Create newsletters using their templates or upload your own. Also has online polling software. Essential if you're building email lists from a website or planning to email large numbers of people.
Craft and Design Magazine - Selling at Craft Fairs part 1
Useful article for UK based artists written by Angie Boyer.
Craft and Design Magazine - Selling at Craft Fairs part 2
Second part of the article for UK based artists written by Angie Boyer.
Craftmaster News
Looking for Art Shows, Craft Shows, Street Fairs, Home and Garden Shows, Trade Shows, Farmers Markets, Craft Boutiques, and more? This is the publication for you. They've been publishing festival and event information for over 25 years now and have become recognized as the Bible in the industry. Covers the Western US states.
David Weiman - Video's for Selling Your Jewelry
Great set of You Tube video's from business psychologist, David Weiman. Titles include Why Jewelry Makers Should Charge Higher Prices, Selling Jewelry in a Tough Economy, The Five Keys to Selling Handcrafted Jewelry, Artisan Jewelry Market Competition and Selling More Handcrafted Jewelry. Well worth watching for tips and hints from this marketing expert.
David Weiman - Marketing Articles
This page has a large number of free articles about marketing issues. They are all written by business psychologist David Weiman. They include:-
The Art of Upselling Artisan Jewelry
What you don't know (how to handle customer complaints)
Five steps for Handling Indecisive Customers
How to Learn more about your Handcrafted Jewelry Buyers
Time to Rhyme
Give it Away
(It Comes Back)
designGap
designGAP is a UK based, selective membership group of well over 200 designer producers, designer-makers and artists. The work of these creatives includes Ceramics, Textiles, Glass, Wood, Silverware, Furniture and Jewellery. DesignGAP members show in major Trade Fairs and Public Events, and an illustrated Directory is published annually.
Facebook for Businesses
This brief and easy to read article from Wayne Kessler clearly explains the importance of using Facebook for businesses. It has a step-by-step guide to setting yourself up on Facebook and tips on how to use it to your advantage. Well worth reading.
Festival Network
The ultimate online source for music festivals, art and craft shows, home and garden shows, and specialty events in the USA and Canada. Providing extensive show details since 1996.
Flickr - Promote your work by displaying your photos online
Sign up for a free account with Flickr and upload your photos. This photo sharing site is a great place to display your work, especially if you don't have a website of your own.
Ganoksin - Marketing Plan Checklist
Useful resource to check out your marketing plan. It's also useful if you don't yet have a plan to help you put one together.
Ganoksin - Add your website Free
Here's a FREE option that may be of interest to you.
Do you have a gem & jewelry related website or blog?
Do you sell products or services related to jewelry manufacturing? Make sure your website IS LISTED at Ganoksin's Guide to Industry Web
Sites!
The Guide is a comprehensive trade directory entirely devoted to
online resources for the gem, jewelry and metals industry. Each
entry is reviewed by knowledgeable editors insuring the quality and
accuracy of websites included in the Guide.
The guide also offers a platform for sharing experiences dealing with
suppliers and services.
How to succeed at selling at a show
Great article with tips and hints on how to make a good impression when selling at a show. Published on the Jewelry Artist/Lapidary Journal website.
Hubspot - Learn How to Leverage Social Media for Your Business with this Social Media Marketing Kit
HubSpot's free Social Media Marketing Kit gives you the tips and tricks you need to harness the power of the social mediasphere - facebook, digg, del.icio.us, twitter, and many others - to get found by more potential customers, develop meaningful relationships with others in your industry, and position yourself as an expert in your field. Learn:
- Why social media is important for your business
- How to start engaging in social media to reach customers and the media
- What and how to measure results from your social media marketing efforts
The Social Media Marketing Kit contains:
-
Video Webinar (WMV) - "Social Media & Business Marketing" covers all the basics of how to leverage social media for your business. (60 minutes plus Q&A)
- Video Webinar (Flash) - "How to Use Social Media to Attract More Customers" will teach you how to connect with customers online and how to measure your social media efforts.
- Video Webinar (Flash) - "How to Demonstrate the Value of Social Media to Your Boss" will outline how social media fits into your business and how to demonstrate the value of social media to your boss or company.
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eBook (PDF) - The eBook contains all of the charts, graphs and other materials from the video for handy reference. (49 pages, full color)
Internet marketing for very small businesses...that works!
Useful article about internet marketing. It contains links to other useful websites and resources to improve your website marketing.
Jewelry Display Ideas
Great resource for anyone selling their jewelry at craft fairs etc. Lots of examples and new ways of looking at things.
Jewelry Lessons - Getting your work noticed online
Great article about how to get your work noticed. It contains lots of great sites that you can submit to FREE just by creating an account. Also has some good advice for how to use social networking sites to your advantage. Well worth reading - beware, you'll be online for a long time if you implement all the great advice here! From the Jewelry Lessons website.
Jewelry Lessons - Getting your work noticed online part 2
More top tips on getting you noticed. From the Jewelry Lessons website.
Jewelry Selling Insights
Monthly e-newsletter for jewelry makers. Written by Dr. David Weiman, the marketing director of Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist, as well as Step by Step Beads and Step by Step Wire Jewelry.
Logo Design Team
'Logo Design Team', a Team of 90+ Professional Graphic Designers are well-equipped in Talent, Expertise, Experience and Infrastructure to serve the Custom Logo Design, Creative Graphic Design, Web Design and Print Media Design requirement of Startups, Small Businesses and Big Corporate Houses. Fixed rate of $149 for five logo designs, delivered within two days and with unlimited revisions until you're happy.
Marketing Jewelry
Marketing expert David Weiman tells you how to market your jewelry business with this informative site. Great free information, a newsletter and ebooks. You can also buy books specifically related to marketing and selling your hand crafted jewelry from this site.
Moo
Moo is a UK based printing company who supply great business cards, postcards etc. The card stock is really good quality and they will provide short print runs. You can print lots of different images in the same business card pack so you can have a variety of different business cards, showing the range of your work. Although this company are UK based, they deliver anywhere in the world. Everything can be done online.
Online Business Marketing
My Business First provide quality articles and information for promoting your business in Australia.
Promoting Yourself and Your Art
Elaine Luther has written this Squidoo Lens about promoting yourself on Squidoo. It's a good introduction to Squidoo and what it can do for you as an artist.
Promote Yourself online without a Website
Good introduction to online promotion which doesn't involve setting up your own website. Written by blogger Elaine Luther.
School of Everything
Great free site where you can list your classes. Allows students to search for you.
Seller How To: Craft Fair Tips
Useful Etsy guide to selling your jewelry at craft fairs.
Selling Jewelry on the Internet
Useful article about selling your jewelry on the internet. Contains links to useful information. Published on the Jewelry Artist/Lapidary Journal website.
Society of North American Goldsmiths - Professional Guidelines
This link contains a large amount of resources for the professional artist. The professional guidelines include top ten tips for getting into juried exhibitions, books or magazines, inventory records when having your work sold in galleries, a number of sample contracts, how to run open studios and many others. Well worth browsing.
Submitterbot
Semi automatic directory submissions tool. Free.
Taglines - how to write one
Useful article on the basics of writing a tagline for your business.
UK Handmade - Getting Your Work into Galleries
This useful article outlines some things to think about when you're approaching galleries with your work.
Video Sharing
There are several places to put video or your work or tutorials, both of which help to build your web presence, drive traffic to your website and get you noticed. Seriously consider these:-
YouTube - Most popular and highly populated video sharing site. Video is compressed, so you loose some clarity and the limit on the length of videos is 10 minutes. Easy to upload and get yourself on the web. Lots of metal clay videos already so you can benefit from people browsing the subject.
Vimeo - Video sharing site using higher definition than YouTube. You get 500 megabites of space per week to store your video. If you have work that would benefit from more clarity than YouTube can give you, Vimeo may be worth looking at. Take care to read the guidelines for advertising your products or services - Vimeo doesn't allow overt promotion or advertising. Simply showing your work or creating a tutorial without specific ads should be fine.
Guide to Exporting your Video to the Web - this guide is for iMovie and the principles are the same for using other video sources.
Software to create a photo movie - this photo to movie software by LQ Graphics. Photo to Movie creates slide shows with motion effects, music, and captions. Burn your movies to DVD or publish to the web. Free trial, works with MAC or PC and costs $50 to buy. If you don't want to use video, this would showcase your metal clay work using your existing photos.
What's your sales pitch - should you market your work as PMC or fine silver?
Though provoking article by Suzanne Wade from the Ganoksin website.
Wholesale vs Retail - Pricing your Jewelry
Useful article on the subject of how to price your jewelry - something every artist grapples with. From the Jewelry Lessons website.
